sive and efficient character, for reducing and washing the ore, for pumping water from the subterranean galleries, and for raising the ore. Two steam engines, each of thirty horse power, are now constantly at work, and to these is soon to be added another of sixty horse power, with all which it is intended to drive forty" stamps" (mortars for pounding the ore into powder), and one or two of Cochrane's crushers, a powerful machine recently invented for the same purpose.

This company's mines embrace a tract of some thirteen hundred acres, and contain several veins which have been "proved," in different places, by probably as many as fifty cuts, tunnels and shafts for a distance of half a mile.

At the point in the property at which the machinery is located, and at which the operations are conducted, shafts have been sunk upon the principal vein, which is of quartz, one hundred and ten feet, at which depth the vein is fifteen feet in thickness. In most of the ore taken from it the gold is invisible, but when reduced, yields $15 and upwards per ton, say an average of $20 to $25 per But in many portions of the vein the ore appears in visible lumps, in a native, pure state. These portions, called "specimens," are selected and kept together in a "specimen room," and when reduced yield, often, several thousand dollars per ton. In some of these specimens the gold is so pure that it can be bent, or broken off with the finger.

ton.

The mining operations of the company embrace five shafts, sunk to an average depth of a hundred feet. One of these is an old one, containing a comfortable stairway leading down to the coolest region we have explored for a month. Two other shafts are used as ventilators, and two others for hoisting the ore and pumping up the water, of which a sufficient quantity is derived from beneath to supply the engines, and employ the amalgamators which work the metal. Two of these shafts have been sunk within a few months past, are situated immediately upon the principal vein, and have supplied the large quantity of specimens containing visible gold before referred to. This principal vein is nearly perpendicular, and has been tested for a half mile, at various points upon its course, by four or five other trial shafts varying from 30 to 50 feet in depth. Thus, there is ore "in sight," as the miners say, sufficient to employ operations, on the most extended scale, for many years. So great is the richness of the vein in the lower portions of it now reached (and it becomes richer the deeper it is penetrated), that a regular system of police is established to watch the mouths of the shafts, as the ore comes up, and to search the miners as they are relieved from duty. Between twelve o'clock on Saturday night and twelve o'clock on Sunday night, the period of suspension of operations, the mouths of the shafts are closed by lock and key, and guards mounted over the hatches.

Underground, there are galleries of some 350 feet in extent, which form a communication between the shafts. Slope workings along these galleries have been made with the same profitable results as in perforating the vein perpendicularly.

Besides a good staff of engineers, about seventy negroes are employed by the company, who are hired from the people of the county. The company are now sending out from England a good supply of practical miners, in addition to those already employed. Besides the "specimens " mentioned as deposited in the "specimen room," immense piles of ore lie above the surface, amounting to many hundreds of tons, which are daily receiving large accessions from the operations below. Though the gold in these piles of ore is invisible, they are so rich as to require a constant day and night watch over them, to guard them from depredators, who, when successful, calcine the quartz, separate the gold. and sell it to the hucksters furtively located about the country.

The settlement has the appearance of an active, thriving village, and presents a scene eminently worthy of a special visit from those who feel an interest in the advance and prosperity of the mining interest of Virginia.

Three other mines in the county, the Wiseman, the Eldridge, and the Morton or Hobson mines, lie upon the same auriferous belt of country in the same

northeast and northwest course, and probably upon the same vein as the "Garnett and Moseley." They have always been worked with profit; but when they shall have been as fully and elaborately developed, and as extensively worked, as the Garnett and Moseley, there is reason to believe that they will prove far more productive and valuable than ever. A paragraph has recently gone the rounds of the press that the two first of these mines have been recently sold to English capitalists, which we understand is the fact. If so, a large working money capital will at once be employed upon them, adequate to their complete and thorough development, which is the only policy that can succeed in the mining operations of this or any other country.

It has only been since sufficient capital has been invested and experienced miners employed in the mineral regions of the United States, that the mining interests of the Union have been any where at all successful, notwithstanding the richness of our ores. Without these necessary conditions, richness of ore is in general of no avail, except to keep up a meagre, sickly and barely profitable system of operations.

It is greatly to be desired that foreign mining capital and skill, having thus found a footing in Virginia, will soon discover the numerous other minerals and localities offering profitable employment, with which our State abounds, and that our State's immense mineral wealth now hidden in her bowels, will thus be extensively explored, and rapidly developed, contributing new wealth, creating new enterprise, adding new resources and imparting new energy to all her great interests.

LONDON AND VIRGINIA GOLD MINING COMPANY.

The "London and Virginia Gold and Copper Mining Company" is also in course of formation, with a capital of £50,000, in £1 shares, and constituted under a charter of the State of Virginia. The company, however, is purely English. Veins of copper, gold, and silver, are stated to run through the property secured, which is in the vicinity of the Garnett and Moseley, Liberty, and other adventures known in this market. Assays, stated to have been made from fairly selected samples of the ores, show very good results. The terms for the purchase of the "Eldridge mine and estate," and the benefit of other contracts, are £10,000 in cash, £10,000 in paid-up shares, and a further sum of £10,000 in shares to be deliverable so soon as a dividend of 10 per cent. shall have been paid to the shareholders. No payment is to be made to the vendors till the representations made have been verified by the company's agents. It is stated that all the shares have been already applied for, and that the project will consequently not be publicly advertised.-London Daily News.

FREEHOLD GOLD MINING COMPANY.

A new Virginia gold mining undertaking is announced, under the title of the "Chancellorsville Freehold Gold Mining Company," with a capital of £50,000, in £1 shares, fully paid up. The property proposed to be worked. the prospectus states, is situated in Orange county, and consists of 439 acres of land. At present only one vein has been opened, but near this is stated to be a strong quartz vein, 20 feet in width, which can be traced for a mile and a half. It is stated that two gentlemen interested in the purchase have already proceeded from London to Virginia, accompanied by Mr. Henwood, F. R. S., &c., and have examined the property, bringing away samples of the ore, which, on assay, are stated to yield very advantageous results. Between 500 and 600 tons of ore have been raised, and are now the property of the company, awaiting reduction. The vendors are to be paid a royalty of th upon the profits and 18,000 shares, of which 6,000 are to be handed over at once.-London Daily News, June 20th.

BRAZILIAN NATIONAL MINING ASSOCIATION.

This company held a meeting in London, about June 20th, for the purpose of considering the propriety of winding up or of taking vigorous measures to develope the land and mines of the company:

The Chairman (JOSIAH BATES, Esq.) informed the meeting that the company possessed about 200,000 acres of the best land in the Brazils, exclusive of the mines. The Cocaes was an agricultural and mining estate. On this estate a lump of gold was discovered weighing 48 lbs., and one of the previous Brazilian owners extracted, by the aid of four negroes, gold to the value of £20,000; in another corner of the estate, gold to the value of £4,200 was extracted in nine days by some laborers. The Macautas estate was about three miles in breadth and five miles in length, where there were two mines unworked by the company. From the Cuiba property a larger yield of gold from auriferous stone might be obtained than was obtained from the St. John Del Rey workings. The Ketuto estate consisted of 170,000 acres of the most valuable land in the Brazils, capable of growing cotton and indigo in great profusion. The whole of the small town of Ketuto belonged to the company, where several manufactures were established. The great source of wealth upon this estate would be the river Sipo, which was said to contain diamonds, for numbers had been picked up on the banks, in places where the waters had receded, by the employés of the Brazilian government. This river had been undisturbed for twenty years. It was thought that by the employment of a dredging machine this river would be found to be extremely rich both in gold and diamonds.

PETRIE'S PATENT GOLD-REFINING PROCESS.

The new method of conducting the refinement of gold, described by Mr. Petrie in the specification of his patent, is directed to the improvement of the process termed "parting," and exhibits another application of a valuable principle of operation, to which he has given the appellation of "differential."

According to the specification, the "refiner's alloy," consisting of one part of the impure gold and three parts of silver, granulated in the usual manner, is first placed in a series of six or more small cells or cylinders, which are placed upright in beds or cradles, resting upon and between two parallel rails, which form an incline; and, if desirable, these can be made to form the sides of a flue, whereby the cells are warmed while in action; or, without the flue, the cradles may be of non-conducting material, and surround the cells to maintain the heat. Hot nitric acid is kept continuously dropping from the top into the highest cell, and having passed down through the whole mass of the alloy, and through a perforated false bottom, ascends through a tube, or at the opposite side of a diaphragm, fixed vertically in the cell, to a lip at the top part. From this it overflows, and drops off the side into the next cell on the incline, which stands upright close to it, but about two inches lower. The nitric acid thus makes its way through this arrangement of successive cells, which is termed "a gradient series." From time to time a new cell containing fresh alloy is added, in a cradle, to the bottom of the series, which is then moved bodily up the incline, by a simple and suitable mechanism, through the space occupied by a single cell: so that each cell is made to move into the position occupied by the one previously next above it, and the upper cell is removed. This process being continued, it is clear that each cell gradually travels up the incline, while the nitric acid moves downwards through them; and thus each cell, with the alloy it contains when first put on the incline, receives the nitric acid after it has descended through all the others, and becomes partially saturated with silver. This liquor, however, is still sufficiently active to operate on the fresh alloy, the surface of which is rich in silver; and if it contained a greater proportion of free nitric acid, it would pulverize the gold itself, by acting too energetically on the fresh alloy. Refiners obviate this in the ordinary process, by using a weak aqueous solution of nitric acid to remove the first portions of silver from the alloy, and then dissolving the remaining portions of silver, which are more difficult of solution, by a second and distinct operation, with stronger acid. A much more perfect adjustment of the energy of the acid to the state of the alloy is obtained in every stage of the "parting" by Mr. Petrie's patent differential mode of bringing the acid and the alloy into contact; a mode which has, moreover, the merit of being a single and

continuous process, in which, as we have seen, the alloy moves upward and encounters stronger acid, just in proportion as the alloy loses its silver, and so the less easily parts with what remains of it, until at length the alloy reaches the top of the series, where its last traces of silver encounter the acid in its freshest and strongest state, are rinsed out by it, and leave the pure gold behind. On the other hand, the nitric acid leaves the series at its lower end, most nearly saturated with silver. This completely effective action is secured with the utmost economy of acid, and not by dint of using the larger excess of acid which would be necessary to do the work with equal efficiency by the ordinary process.

The peculiar nature and advantages of the general principle of differential actions, of which we have a good example, are fully defined in the specification of the patent. Its general object is the effecting of a change in two things by their mutual action, when portions of them are brought into contact gradually and successively, by making them pass through one another in opposite directions. The result of such an arrangement necessarily is, that at every point along the line of action, they meet one another only in such relative states that their action on each other is but slight; but the action being continuous and progressive, they emerge at opposite ends with contrary changes effected in each to the greatest degree. By the ordinary modes, on the contrary, of bringing such materials into contact, with a view of effecting mutual changes, the completeness of the change in one of the materials can only be gained by expending an excess of the other material, and so foregoing the completeness of its change.

As the cells containing the refined gold in its spongy state are removed from the top of the differential gradient series, they are placed at the bottom of a new series exactly similar-excepting, that instead of nitric acid, water is continually dropping in at the upper end. By this means, the remaining acid and salt of silver are rinsed out; and this being done differentially, the rinsing is most complete, at the same time that the adhering acid and salt are withdrawn from the gold with the least possible dilution of water.

In the next stage of the process covers are fitted to the first-named series of solution-cells, to confine the nitrous fumes arising from them. These covers fit loosely, but internally, so as to trap the gas by the acid itself within the cell, thus securing the useful principle of the water-lute without its complication. The fumes are thence conducted, by stoneware tubes, through an apparatus, called a gas collector, into an oxidator. There are some novelties in the arrangements of these subordinate parts, and no luting is needed. The fumes are drawn off by an internal suction from the end of the oxidator, so that any imperfect or loose fittings in the parts are a positive advantage, by improving the oxidation, instead of being fatal to the efficacy of the apparatus, and causing a nuisance from the escape of the fumes, as is the case with similar arrangements which have been lately proposed in some other departments of chemical art.

The patentee does not claim the general application of the principle of the oxidator, but the apparatus he specifies and claims is altogether new and an improvement on existing means. It consists of a column of hollow stoneware cylinders of an improved shape, fitted loosely with coarse, rounded silicious sand, having its grains of a uniform and particular size, to secure the utmost effect with the smallest apparatus. The specification describes a definite rule for determining what this size should be in any particular case. The sand may be so obtained by means of one of the recent gold-washing machines, for which a new use is thus found. New arrangements are described also for admitting the fumes and air at a lower part of the column, and for securing a slow and uniform dispersion of water over the upper surface of the sand. A draught of suction is at the same time created (as by connection with a powerful chimney draught), which draws the fumes through the apparatus, and reconverts the whole of the fumes into strong nitric acid, which flows out from beneath in a continuous stream, ready for further concentration or for imme

diate use. The sand being prepared as specified, does not arrest the draught as ordinary sand, or even gravel, or a coarser-crushed material would. The peculiar combining powers of the solid silicious surface in contact with air and water, by which means the most extensive oxidating effects are produced in nature,-are developed in this apparatus to a greater extent, for the combining surface of the grooves in a cylindrical apparatus twelve feet high and one foot in diameter, is several thousands of square feet; and this is kept in a state of the utmost chemical activity by the direct impinging of the gases against it, by the action of the water on the contrary direction, and by the thinness of the film of the water between the combining surface and the gases. The vent of the draught from the apparatus is stated to be practically inoffensive.-London Mechanics' Magazine.

INCREASE OF GOLD.

The Boston Atlas has an article on the increase of gold, which contains much interesting information on the subject. It appears that for half a century before the discovery of the American continent, the annual product was not more than $1,500,000. About the middle of the 16th century the mines of Potosi were opened, and from that time to 1700 the increased supply came principally from America, and averaged annually from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000; making the annual product of the world during that period between $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. This supply went on increasing for a century, when in 1800 the annual product of gold and silver had reached $48,000,000; about 70 per cent. or $33,600,000 of which was silver, and the remaining 30 per cent., or $14,400,000, gold. Of this sum America furnished about 90 per cent. of the silver, and 58 per cent. of the gold.

"From about 1810 to 1836 the supply of the precious metals from Europe and America had fallen off some 20 per cent. This arose from the fact that some of the mines had become exhausted, but more particularly from the wars on the continent, and the disturbed and unsettled state of Mexico and South America, where some of the richest mines were found. But during this period, mines were opened in Siberia, and Russia became the great gold producing country of the world. These mines, which in 1816 produced only about $50,000, had increased in productiveness till in 1836 they yielded $14,000,000. In 1848, the period when gold was discovered in California, the annual production of gold and silver had arisen to $82,000,000-of which $38,300,000 was in silver, and $44,700,000 in gold. At this period, America produced about 70 per cent. of the silver, and only 21 per cent. of the gold. It has been estimated that the total amount of the precious metals in the world, at the time of the discovery of the mines of California, was $7,650,000,000-of which about onethird, or $2,550,000,000 was gold.

"Since the working of the mines in California, there has been a rapid increase of gold. Up to 1852, it has been estimated that the gold from California alone would amount to $153,000,000. There was coined at the United States mints in 1852, $52,240,000; and though a small portion of this may have been obtained from North Carolina and Georgia, and another small portion may have been a recoinage of foreign gold, yet it is believed that as large a quantity of California gold has been used in manufactures as all the coinage of foreign gold, added to what has been obtained from Carolina and Georgia. We will, however, drop the odd numbers and set down the amount at $52,000,000. The quantity of gold dust sent from California to Great Britain and other foreign countries during the same years, must have amounted to at least $12,000,000— making the production of California for 1852, $64,000,000. Some have estimated it much higher. From present appearances the quantity from California the present year will be increased rather than diminished. We will set it down at $66,000,000. We will also suppose that Australia and Siberia will yield $44,000,000 more; we shall then have an annual production of $110,000,000 of gold, over and above the ordinary product from other parts of the world."